Doctors warn that extreme cravings for everything salty, from pickles to chips, could indicate a rare and deadly health disorder.
A 15-year-old girl from Toronto was admitted to hospital after months of suffering unexplained symptoms, including severe dizziness, fatigue, dehydration and insatiability. cravings for salty snacks.
It wasn’t until the girl’s doctor noticed her unusually tanned complexion and dark spots under her tongue that it became clear that her adrenal glands had stopped working, a potentially fatal health crisis.
She was eventually diagnosed with Addison’s disease, a one-in-100,000 disorder in which the adrenal glands do not produce enough hormones to regulate crucial minerals and hormones in the body, causing nausea, abdominal pain, weight loss, salt cravings. and dark color. spots on the skin – hyperpigmentation.
The condition can be controlled with hormone replacement therapy, but can lead to death if left untreated.
Addison’s disease causes a drop in the hormone that regulates sodium and potassium levels in the body, leaving the person with extreme cravings for salty foods.
A 15-year-old female patient experiencing extreme sodium cravings also presented with pigmentation under her tongue, indicative of Addison’s disease.
Addison’s disease disrupts the body’s delicate hormonal balance, as well as sodium and potassium, two vital minerals that help regulate blood pressure, muscle and kidney function, and cellular nutrients.
Upon arrival, the Canadian patient’s sodium level was approximately 130 millimoles per liter (mmol/L), despite eating jars of pickles at a time, handfuls of chips, and sprinkling her meals with salt.
Normal sodium levels range between 136 and 145 mmol/L, which is necessary to regulate the amount of water in and around cells and to generate electrical signals between nerves, allowing communication between the brain and the rest of the body.
A estimated 80 percent of patients with Addison’s disease experience salt cravings because the disease causes them to lose an excessive amount of sodium through urine.
Normal potassium levels range between 3.5 and 5.2 millimoles per liter (mmol/L), but the patient’s level was reaching the high end of the range, 5 mmol/L.
Excess potassium in the blood disrupts crucial electrical impulses that regulate the heartbeat. This makes the heart prone to abnormal electrical activity that increases the risk of a life-threatening irregular heart rhythm.
At the same time, he had an insatiable thirst despite drinking three liters of water a day. Increased thirst may be an early sign of Addison’s disease because the disease interferes with the way the body regulates water levels.
The internal medicine specialist who treated the girl also noticed her tan despite it being sagging, which led the doctor to perform a more thorough physical examination, which is when the doctor noticed the hyperpigmentation on the underside of the girl’s tongue. patient, a characteristic sign of Addison’s disease.
Patients also experience loss of appetite, reduced blood pressure, dizziness when standing, unexplained weight loss, muscle aches, and nausea.
Addison’s disease occurs when the adrenal glands do not function properly. These multi-layered glands sit on top of the kidneys and each layer produces a different crucial hormone.
The upper layers produce aldosterone, a hormone that tells the kidneys to retain sodium while signaling the release of potassium through the urine.
When the adrenal glands do not produce enough aldosterone, the sodium that enters the body through salty snacks leaves it just as quickly as urine, leaving the person dehydrated, extremely dizzy, thirsty, and craving even more sodium. .
The second layer produces cortisol, commonly known as the stress hormone. It helps regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and helps the body deal with stress. An insufficient amount can cause nausea, abdominal pain, weight loss, and hyperpigmentation.
Addison’s disease also affects the third layer, which normally produces DHEA and androgenic steroids, precursor hormones that are converted in the ovaries into female hormones and in the testes into male hormones.
Addison’s disease can be fatal if undetected or untreated, but it can be controlled with hormone replacement therapy to normalize aldosterone and cortisol levels.
Without treatment, symptoms can progress to dangerous electrolyte imbalances, including an increase in potassium levels and eventually organ failure.
The condition usually arises from an autoimmune disorder, which occurs when the body turns its own immune system against itself. Specifically with Addison’s, the body attacks the outer portion of its own adrenal glands.
In developed countries, autoimmune diseases cause eight to nine out of 10 cases of Addison’s disease.
Tuberculosis is the most common cause of Addison’s disease worldwide, but tuberculosis is generally rare in the US.
Other less common causes of Addison’s disease include a history of infections, particularly HIV and fungal infections, heavy bleeding in the adrenal glands, cancer cells migrating to the adrenal glands from other parts of the body, surgical removal of the adrenal glands, and certain mutations. genetics. .
The condition is rare, affecting about one in every 100,000 people in the U.S. and occurs most often among middle-aged women.
Autoimmune diseases in general are more prevalent in women.
